Deer Strike Probability by state

[stonelover]

[twowheeladdict]

We need more people to start adding venison to their diets. 

[Lannis]

Unfortunately, it's one of those things that you can do only so much to mitigate.   Slowing down at night, or staying off the back roads at night, and scanning the roadsides helps, but they will flank you and come at you from the side and get you.   

All three of the bad deer hits on my wife's car were from the side; two of them in my DRIVEWAY.    Several close calls on the bike as the deer cannonballed in from the brush, crossed my bow,  and gone before I could even hit the brakes ...

I get about two of them into the freezer each year during the season, but that's all that will fit in the freezer ...

Lannis

[twowheeladdict]

Unfortunately, it's one of those things that you can do only so much to mitigate.   Slowing down at night, or staying off the back roads at night, and scanning the roadsides helps, but they will flank you and come at you from the side and get you.   

All three of the bad deer hits on my wife's car were from the side; two of them in my DRIVEWAY.    Several close calls on the bike as the deer cannonballed in from the brush, crossed my bow,  and gone before I could even hit the brakes ...

I get about two of them into the freezer each year during the season, but that's all that will fit in the freezer ...

Lannis

Just the other day I had one enter my periphery at 3:30 in the afternoon that my brain first thought was a large dog.  When I realized it was a deer and where it was I couldn't calculate quick enough whether I could pass in front of it or not.  Since reduced speed reduces impact damage I decided to slam on the brakes and it made a last second veer itself so we both got out unscathed but with adrenaline pumping. 

It would be nice if food banks woud take and distribute venison. 

[cloudbase]

I was about a quarter mile behind a pickup on Wednesday when he took out a doe just north of Huntsville, TX.  Quite the mess.

[Rough Edge racing]

 Want less deer? Just removing hunting restrictions...By 1920 there were literally no deer in this area, hunted to near extinction.... so hunting was restricted..
  I let a few guys hunt on our land if they give us a few pounds of any kills...Some we eat but it's our old male mostly outside cat that just loves raw vension..He will not eat store bought meat, cooked or raw...

[Roebling3]

Harumpf? I've not hit a deer - - yet. But I can vouch for a bigger surprise?
Full grown bull moose. Pre seat-belts. Barely slowed him. Mid July. LaGrange, Maine. 3am. Swamp landing was almost delicate. 4 guys with hand lights, boots and shot guns could not find him over an hours search.
I thought they were being merciful. They 'needed' the meat.  R3~   

[Rick in WNY]

In NY, the DEC says you can not bait for deer, you can not use salt blocks, but you can place "natural mineral blocks." However, those have to be removed no less than 30 days before the start of hunting season lest they be used to attract deer to your hunting spot. 

However, as soon as the snow flies, the NYDOT starts flinging salt all over the roads....

[Lannis]

It would be nice if food banks would take and distribute venison.

WAY ahead of you there ...

https://www.feedingtexas.org/solutions/hunters-for-the-hungry/

There are chapters everywhere ...

Lannis

[twowheeladdict]

WAY ahead of you there ...

https://www.feedingtexas.org/solutions/hunters-for-the-hungry/

There are chapters everywhere ...

Lannis

Awesome!  If you donate it should not count against your limit. 

[Guzzistajohn]

Counted 18 deer from Willard, mo to my house Monday evening. Maybe 6 miles?? One herd with 9 deer that had 3 bucks with pretty good racks. Had a dude hit a doe in front of my house last fall, she dropped dead in my driveway. And Missouri didn’t make the cut?  Hard to believe

[Lannis]

Awesome!  If you donate it should not count against your limit.

I haven't checked this year (I hunt on family land and so don't need a license in Virginia) but if you take out tags for archery, muzzle-loading, gun season, and does, each hunter can take 16 deer on his license.

And some do.   I've seen pickup trucks loaded to the top of the body with field-dressed carcasses on the way to being cut up.

And the deer just keep on coming.

Lannis

[larrys]

In CT if you get and use all of the deer permits available, you can harvest 22 deer a year. A crop damage permit, for folks who get permission to hunt apple orchard properties, is 6 deer a year any time of the year. I used to take a couple a year from the forest behind the house, nowadays no one but me wants to eat it. It is possible to donate your venison to the local soup kitchen, lots o' work just to give the meat away. Shootin' 'em is the easy part...
Larry

[fotoguzzi]

I shoot them with my trail cam

[Diploman]

This validates what I thought:  The deer count in Pennsylvania is #3 nationwide, after WV and Montana. They are everywhere, even readily visible many places during the day, prolific at dusk, night and early morning.

Out of simple self-preservation, therefore, for me riding dusk to mid morning is out of the question.  On back roads during the daylight hours, alertness and caution is required.  The bucks are especially crazy and unpredictable during rutting season.

[Don G]

Out in my neck of the woods you get to choose white tail or mule deer, pronghorn antelope or moose, and that is just the deer family, add in all the other critters that crawl walk or fly, I do not ride early in the morning or near night fall or at night anymore, prefer to wreck something with four wheels......   DonG

[nc43bsa]

I've seen deer out in the open at dawn, dusk, noon, afternoon, and way after midnight.


When do the damn things sleep?   


Do they have 3 shifts?

[sidmonsters]

They only sleep after procreating!
Steve

[trippah]

Had three does sleeping in  amongst the 3 pines in my back yard a while back: 10am to 4:30 then I guess they heard a dinner time bell.

[Sykestone8886]

In PA you can donate your deer to the local food bank. We have plenty to go around !!!

[not-fishing]

Thanks,

I was wondering why the Deer Hunting is so bad in California.

I know the Deer strikes are low in Nevada because all the Californian's hunt there so the population is controlled.

[jwinwi]

'Tis the season so let's be extra careful out there!

[wymple]

I hit 2 in 8 days a few years ago. Blind sided by both, middle of the afternoon. The 2nd one was bad. Here in SE Iowa, I wouldn't care if they were damn near extinct.

[Penderic]

I live in a deer zone - they are every where, fairly tame and mostly used to cars. Just passed a bunch munching by the side of the road. Musta been 6 or 7 of them. All young and medium size. A few on the island get bigger but a couple of male Elk were seen and photographed next farm over from us - they are BIG! Few fences around here could stop those beasts. A day or two later they were gone ... probably looking for girl Elk and passing by ... they are excellent swimmers. During the mating season the adults get crazy, (the deer that is, not the islanders!), and forget about the cars and become hazardous. New born deer are always unpredictable - assume the worst!


Its safer driving the tractor!

Couple of years ago a deer jumped out in front of me after I turned into my driveway/ lane. Walking speed and I hit the Brakes and front wheel locked on the gravel and over she went. Deer long gone. Left me on my side with a bit of road rash on my Craven Saddlebags and the left cheek on my Guzzi's Bikini fairing. 

Almost done repainting the saddlebags. Riding season for me is about over ... time to winterize!

Horses, cows, goats! Watch out for livestock.






A few years ago: Tent caterpillars! Hundreds of thousands of them, swarming and moving together like a living river, turned the roads here on Pener Island, green and slippery in the areas where they crossed. Amazing amount of insects that couldn't be stopped- climbed over everything in their way - I think I got some pics of them climbing up a few garden statues - look like chia pets ... yuck.

[Ryan]

There are a few deer around my place, but there is a large herd of elk that I fear more. They will string out 35 strong, and the stragglers will run into the road long after  the main herd is gone. If you see them cross in front of you, give a 10 count before you assume they have all crossed.

[pebra]

Are the figures supposed to represent the likely of hitting a deer e.g. 1 in 48 (WV) IN A LIFETIME, or what?
Figures are conclusions from a study over 12 months. They can't represent a driver's likelihood of hitting a deer in the course of a year, can they?

[Lannis]

Are the figures supposed to represent the likely of hitting a deer e.g. 1 in 48 (WV) IN A LIFETIME, or what?
Figures are conclusions from a study over 12 months. They can't represent a driver's likelihood of hitting a deer in the course of a year, can they?

Yes, it is.   Not hard for me to believe that one out of every 99 drivers in Virginia (my home state) will hit a deer in the year 2018.

They basically get the figures from comprehensive insurance claims in each state over the course of a year.  Virginia, for example, has 6 million drivers, and there were about 60,000 deer strikes last year in the state.

Fay, for example, has been driving for 48 years and has hit (or had them hit her) 3 deer.   That's one deer every 16 years.   I know people with a LOT more ....

Lannis

[pebra]

Words fail me.
I do feel sorry for you, riding with that sort of risk!
We do have quite a few deer, and more notably moose fatalities in Scandinavia, too, but nothing like that. I think. 

[Lannis]

Words fail me.
I do feel sorry for you, riding with that sort of risk!
We do have quite a few deer, and more notably moose fatalities in Scandinavia, too, but nothing like that. I think. 

We feel sorry for ourselves, sometimes.   In terms of "unforced errors" that can kill you on a bike (NOT things like riding too fast for conditions, riding drunk, etc), the deer problem here is probably second to text/alcohol/drug impaired drivers as the thing that will kill a careful rider ...

The population has just exploded.  When I was a boy, it was rare to see a deer, and the hunt clubs had very strict rules about shooting does.   Now, going by the individual deer on my trail cameras, I estimate that there are 25 deer just on my farm; I see them every night .... and we shoot does whenever we can.   They're small, but the meat is pretty good.

Just doing some "Close Enough" statistics for the country of Norway, you have about 3,000,000 licensed drivers, and about 9,000 deer, moose, etc are killed on the roads each year.    So that's 9 out of every 3000 drivers, or one out of 334 .....

Lannis

Lannis

[pebra]

ummm, yes, I like some good deer meat! Reindeer in particular is very good.
Moose are the big scare around here. They're king of the forest and don't heed or fear anything, just saunter into the road and aren't bothered by approaching cars. A big one weighing up towards a ton, a collision could flatten a car.